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While one of my areas of modeling interest has always been post-WWII Soviet aircraft, I never had much interest in the WWII Russian stuff. Recently, with more manufacturers in the east, we are starting to see more quality models of WWII Russian aircraft. Zvezda has announced a new Pe-2 WWII Russian bomber kit.

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April 22, 2019

Big Plane Kits (BPK) make a series of 737 kits in 72nd scale. I’ve wanted these for some time, but they aren’t cheap and apparently not very widely distributed. They’ve now announced a 737-800. This just reminds me that I need to pick these kits up.

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April 18, 2019

I am a 72nd scale purist. However, one area where deviation from God’s One True Scale make sense to me is WWI aircraft. Given the size of these and the rigging required, I see the sense in building in 32nd scale if this is your area of interest. The EXCEPTION to THAT EXCEPTION is Eduard is releasing a 72nd scale Fokker D.VII. Given the beauty of Eduard’s 48th scale kit and the lack of rigging required on the Fokker, I expect this will be a popular model for those of us into 72nd scale.

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April 17, 2019

On Saturday, 13 April 2019 an aviation record was broken. Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose held the record of the largest aircraft to have ever flown for a whopping 71 years. That record was broken by Scaled Composites’ Model 351 Stratolaunch “Roc”. With a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters), its wings are 64 feet (19.5 meters) longer than those of the Spruce Goose. The Antonov An-225 still holds the record for the heaviest aircraft to ever fly. Film of the flight here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBSJEYq9vBg

Stratolaunch was funded by Microsoft Billionaire Paul Allen to perform aerial launches of orbital rockets. The aircraft was constructed by Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites. It is intended to be the “first stage” of a launch vehicle and is designed to carry up to a 550,000 lb (250,000 kg) external payload between the twin fuselages.

A number of orbital insertion vehicles were in design to be carried by…